Football: CU Buffs showdown with CSU Rams moved to Sunday, Sept. 1

The season opener for the Colorado football team seems a million miles away at this point for first year coach Mike MacIntyre.

With his first spring game looming Saturday, one final spring practice to follow Tuesday, the entire spring recruiting evaluation period running through the end of May and summer camps after that, facing Colorado State is somewhere way out there on the horizon right now. But MacIntyre is also experienced enough to know the 4½ months between now and game day will pass quickly.

Now he has one extra day to prepare.

The Mountain West Conference announced Thursday the Buffs' and Rams' annual grudge match has been moved to Sunday, Sept. 1. It was originally scheduled for Aug. 31. The game will once again be played at Sports Authority Field in Denver, where crowd sizes have been dwindling in recent years mostly due to lackluster ticket sales on the CSU side.

A game time and television rights are still being negotiated but there is some hope that the game could be picked up by ESPN for a national audience and played in the middle of the afternoon.

"That will be great," MacIntyre said of playing on Sunday. "I think any time we can get more exposure it's awesome. So that will be a lot of fun."

Special teams emphasis

MacIntyre said one of the biggest parts of the spring game will be having live special teams plays.

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He said the entire game will play a big part in establishing a depth chart for the start of fall camp, nowhere more so than the special teams units because they aren't generally live in practices.

MacIntyre said he is hoping to see a few more stops from the defense in the spring game. The defense was chewed up by the offense in the most recent scrimmage last week. He said he is hoping for a smooth scrimmage without many penalties or injuries.

Captains coming

MacIntyre was asked when he will choose team captains for the 2013 season.

"I hope to announce captains before summer starts in June so they can help lead them in the summer and really dive into it," he said.

Notable

Defensive back Parker Orms has missed most of the second half of spring drills with swelling in his knee. MacIntyre said Orms will try to play Saturday. ... MacIntyre said with only 10 offensive linemen available for the spring game, five on each team, there is a contingency plan for an in-game injury among the group. He said one of the remaining linemen will change between black and white jersey and play for both teams. ... MacIntyre said he expects to have a final depth chart from spring available by the end of next week. ... The spring game will feature four 12-minute quarters with a running clock, except for the final 2 minutes of each half. When asked what the winners will get, MacIntyre offered this: "They'll get to eat."

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